Blog Assignment #8: Due Wednesday, December 1

Good Evening, Bloggers.

It's been a while since I posted. We've all had a very hectic week and a half with Progress Reports and Student-Led Conferences happening last week. Now, we're back to a more regular schedule. We get to see Wicked this Wednesday, and our Tolerance unit is beginning to wind down.

For this blog assignment, you've got a few tasks to complete. At least one will probably need to be completed at home, as Youtube videos don't often work very well at school (our internet service is painfully slow, I know).

Throughout this unit, we've talked about the issues of tolerance, intolerance, discrimination, and prejudice. We've learned about the history of these issues and how they have presented themselves in the modern world as well as in history, and we've talked about the effects that prejudice and discrimination can have on our community. Now, it's time to think about what is being done, and what we can do to end the cycle of discrimination within our class, our school, our community, and our world.

The first thing you need to do is check out the It Gets Better Project. Read about the project and some of the statistics that surround the issue of LGBTQ bullying (at the bottom of the page). Once you know what this project is about, The Pledge. Read it, understand it, and think about it before you sign your name. When you take the pledge, please only use your first name and last initial. Also, please use the school postal code (L1G5T6).

The second thing you need to do is to go Youtube and check out a few of the It Gets Better Videos. There are a ton to choose from, ranging from celebrities and famous people like Glee's Max Adler , Project Runway's Tim Gunn, President Obama, Adam Lambert, Ke$ha, Zachary Quinto, Jewel, Joel Madden, AJ Maclean, Jenny McCarthy, Ian Somerhalder, Anne Hathaway, Kristin Cavallari, and Kat Graham, to "normal people" like employees of Facebook, Google , or even the cast of Wicked.

Once you've had a chance to view some videos and learn a little more about the problems facing today's youth, you will create your own PSA (Public Service Announcement) discussing these issues. You can talk about your own experiences (you may not use the name of anyone else in your recording), the It Gets Better Project, The Trevor Project, or Kids Help Phone, the consequences of bullying, the statistics relating to these issues, or any other issue you think needs to be addressed relating to the topic of bullying.

To record your PSA, you will use Audacity. You will learn how to use Audacity this week in class. Once recorded, you will post the recording to your blog, along with a brief caption explaining what the recording is about.

This assignment is due on DECEMBER 1.